Thursday, January 7, 2016
November and December
We landed back in Florida the first part of November after a quick stop in Washington DC and a nice time in Hilton Head at the Entegra Owners Rally. Since then we have been busy helping our very dear friend, Tress, relocate to SC to be closer to her family. We decided that our project this "winter" would be to get her house in order with a little sprucing in order to help her sell it. We have pretty much wrapped up our project and are heading into 2016 to put the finishing touches on it!
Okay even if I am posting this in 2016 I meant to do it at the end of 2015!
Okay even if I am posting this in 2016 I meant to do it at the end of 2015!
Friday, October 30, 2015
September and October
September is pretty easy to account for since we both had nasty colds and spend most of our time chilling out, between Salisbury Beach and Scusset Beach State Parks in Massachusetts. We then went to Hampton Beach SP in New Hampshire so that we could watch Liz, my niece, run a half marathon, and... well also get to play with the kids again. When she runs she barely breaks a sweat she's in such great shape, meanwhile I am tired just watching her run! We ended up returning to Angle Pond Camp because the little one was sick and we volunteered to watch her for another week until everyone got back on their feet. I am posting a photo of the lunar event taken from our friend Pat's house in Massachusetts. Of course we stopped by there yet again this year!
So off we went to Washington DC for a few days, had the opportunity to see a couple of monuments we had not seen, and dinner at Legal Seafood, one of our favorites. We then headed down to see our friends Bob and Don in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We were lucky that the horrible weather preceded our arrival there and we did not run into any flooding. Unfortunately we only had a couple of days there so we had a nice long visit Friday night and they treated us to breakfast on Saturday.
We then headed down to Hilton head Island Motorcoach Resort where we attended an Entegra Owners Coach Association owners rally. This was the first rally that we had attended and we had a wonderful time. We were so happy that our friends Woody and Ann that we met in Michigan this past year were also there and we had a chance to reconnect. We met so many new friends and have made plans to at least meet a few of them in Big Sky Montana this summer at the next rally.
Had a few things that needed fixing so made appointment to go to National Indoor
RV Center outside Atlanta. These people are fabulous! They could not have been any nicer and we will absolutely return here for any future repairs. As a matter fact we did make an offer on a newer coach, but someone snapped it up before we could. And finally a visit with Tamara, Tracy and Freyer! She is so cute and cuddly and we loved spending time with her.
So our next stop will be November 1 at Bay Bayou in Tampa where we will stay until the end of January.
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| Jerrod, Lyla, Liz & Kynlee |
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| Liz at the Hampton Half |
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| Lunar Eclipse from Lakeville, MA |
So off we went to Washington DC for a few days, had the opportunity to see a couple of monuments we had not seen, and dinner at Legal Seafood, one of our favorites. We then headed down to see our friends Bob and Don in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We were lucky that the horrible weather preceded our arrival there and we did not run into any flooding. Unfortunately we only had a couple of days there so we had a nice long visit Friday night and they treated us to breakfast on Saturday.
We then headed down to Hilton head Island Motorcoach Resort where we attended an Entegra Owners Coach Association owners rally. This was the first rally that we had attended and we had a wonderful time. We were so happy that our friends Woody and Ann that we met in Michigan this past year were also there and we had a chance to reconnect. We met so many new friends and have made plans to at least meet a few of them in Big Sky Montana this summer at the next rally.
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| Sheila, Tommy & Gracie May, Mary & David and Us |
RV Center outside Atlanta. These people are fabulous! They could not have been any nicer and we will absolutely return here for any future repairs. As a matter fact we did make an offer on a newer coach, but someone snapped it up before we could. And finally a visit with Tamara, Tracy and Freyer! She is so cute and cuddly and we loved spending time with her.
So our next stop will be November 1 at Bay Bayou in Tampa where we will stay until the end of January.
Monday, September 7, 2015
Happy Labor Day - the official close of Summer??
Usually Labor Day signifies a close of the Season, a chill in the air and school bus traffic on the roads! We are still in New Hampshire but the temperature has been running in the 80's and will do so for the foreseeable future here (well that at least means for another week!). The children returned to school in late August so they all seem to have a routine already. Leslie and I have had the pleasure of putting Lyla on the bus for Kindergarten last week and driving a couple of days too. Had to believe that she is 5 1/2 already and that MaKynlee is 15 months. Our bonus this year was that we are watching Kynlee during the week while we are here, except Thursday when she goes to "school". Sadly this week is our last as we head on to our next destinations. It's really hard to think about leaving the little ones for a few months since they change so quickly! Suffice it to say we are having a ball with them! Lyla teaches us new games and makes sure that we follow the rules to the letter! Lyla took Uncle and me to the Boston's Children Museum one day and showed us the ropes. Her daddy, Jerrod treated Lyla, Uncle and me to a Boston Red Sox Game which was on our bucket list for this Summer.
We've been low-key for a while just enjoying the weather and lounging. Yesterday we drove to David & Janet's house in Maine to join their family and friends for their annual cookout. We had a really good time and met or reacquainted ourselves with some of their neighbors and friends. Honestly there was way too much food and we had to leave (heaven forbid we missed a NASCAR race or the cats were alone too long!) before the fried turkey was put in. Janet made her annual surprise cake...really you wouldn't believe how talented she is...made a cake that looked exactly like a huge rack of ribs...as a matter of fact on the table I thought it was ribs and was lamenting about how could we possibly eat ribs when someone told me that was the CAKE!!
Next Sunday we will be heading out to Salisbury Beach State Park (Massachusetts) to camp for the week before heading to Scussett Beach SP (also in Mass. but right at the end of the Cape Cod Canal and one of our very favorite spots).
Here are a few of our highlight photos from the past month, including a sunset from our spot at Angle Pond.
We've been low-key for a while just enjoying the weather and lounging. Yesterday we drove to David & Janet's house in Maine to join their family and friends for their annual cookout. We had a really good time and met or reacquainted ourselves with some of their neighbors and friends. Honestly there was way too much food and we had to leave (heaven forbid we missed a NASCAR race or the cats were alone too long!) before the fried turkey was put in. Janet made her annual surprise cake...really you wouldn't believe how talented she is...made a cake that looked exactly like a huge rack of ribs...as a matter of fact on the table I thought it was ribs and was lamenting about how could we possibly eat ribs when someone told me that was the CAKE!!
Next Sunday we will be heading out to Salisbury Beach State Park (Massachusetts) to camp for the week before heading to Scussett Beach SP (also in Mass. but right at the end of the Cape Cod Canal and one of our very favorite spots).
Here are a few of our highlight photos from the past month, including a sunset from our spot at Angle Pond.
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| At Children's Museum in Boston |
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| Wally and Lyla at the BoSox game |
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| Angle Pond Campground, Sandown NH |
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| Kynlee loves her Uncle! |
Saturday, August 8, 2015
NH Nascar Race - Wells Maine - Angle Pond Campground in NH!!
I really need to get my act together and post a little more often that I have been! We went to the NH NASCAR race week and dry camped for the week. Friday Les' childhood friend David and his wife Janet joined us for the race festivities. To say it was HOT was an understatement! We were all roasting under the Sun during the hottest week thus far in New Hampshire! We made it through and although we were all disappointed that KB won the race we had a great time together. D&J live off the grid in Maine and we will be joining them for their annual BBQ on Labor Day so we didn't have to "part" just say goodbye until then.
We left the race and went immediately to Wells Maine where we met Carl and Jane from Kentucky, our friends who also have a Big Rig. We stayed at a very nice RV Resort with huge sites! Of course no Maine visit is complete without the Lobstah dinner, steamers, corn and beer! Well through in a chicken sandwich for Jane! We had so much fun, as we always do with them. We explored the coast of Maine and visited the Portland Head Light, one of the infamous sites in Maine. We also had a chance to see the Bush Compound during our visit to Kennebunkport. We are posting a couple of photos as well as one of C&J looking at us through their lenses!!
Back to APC (Angle Pond in Sandown NH) to rest for a couple of days before Maureen & Jimmy visit us here. They drove up from Staten Island for a wedding in Mass. and we were glad that they had some time to see us. We all went down to a cookout at Pat's house in Lakeville on Saturday, great time! Sunday after Mass. Jim, Maureen and Pat went to Plum Island to explore the neighborhood where Maureen grew up. Can you imagine that she has a street named after her family? It was very cool to see it and even get a chance to speak with some neighbors who bought their house from Maureen's parents! We were sad to see them go on Monday but they had to get back to their reality too! We will see them in Florida in November so it won't be too long.
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| Portland Head Light |
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| LOBSTAH at the Camp! |
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| George H.W. & Barbara Bush Compound, Kennebunkport, Maine |
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| What are YOU looking at Carl & Jane? |
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| Anchor and plate dedicated to President Bush from Townspeople |
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| Portland Head Light |
Back to APC (Angle Pond in Sandown NH) to rest for a couple of days before Maureen & Jimmy visit us here. They drove up from Staten Island for a wedding in Mass. and we were glad that they had some time to see us. We all went down to a cookout at Pat's house in Lakeville on Saturday, great time! Sunday after Mass. Jim, Maureen and Pat went to Plum Island to explore the neighborhood where Maureen grew up. Can you imagine that she has a street named after her family? It was very cool to see it and even get a chance to speak with some neighbors who bought their house from Maureen's parents! We were sad to see them go on Monday but they had to get back to their reality too! We will see them in Florida in November so it won't be too long.
The rest of August should be fairly uneventful with lots of play time with the "girls" and the excitement of Lyla getting ready for Kindergarten! Here's a picture of the "fish herself" with her Daddy on the Cape and one of both of the girls with him!
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| Lyla, Daddy and Kynlee, Cape Cod 2015 |
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| Lovin' the Pool Lyla & Daddy |
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Happy Fourth of July!
We are celebrating our 4th here in New Hampshire at our usual spot, Angle Pond Campground. After a leisurely walk this morning to get the blood flowing, it was time for breakfast and our naps! We arrived here on Monday excited to reunite with family. The two "girls" have grown so much and Uncle is right back in the swing of things, playing and acting out for them. Here's a picture of our first playdate, Les (bunny ears and all) pushing Kynlee (13 months) around the house on her toy and Lyla (5) making monster faces at Auntie! We missed them so much. Dinner last night with sister Kathie and her husband, Tony. Tony is doing very well after a terrible fall during the Winter breaking his pelvis and leg. After surgery and much therapy he has graduated to only a cane.
Backtracking....we spent almost a month with our friend Pat in Lakeville, Mass. Les had a chance to do some repairs on her tractor, which I think he did more so for him to be able to ride it and mow her lawn than he did for her! LOL. He installed a handrail for her cellar stairs and some general yard work, which he does love. Meanwhile my friend Marsha flew in from Florida and Pat, Marsha and I went to Martha's Vineyard for a few days. We stayed near Edgartown and since we took the Jeep we spent a day (rainy overcast one) touring the Island and pretty much stopped in every major town on the Island. Of course we had lobster and lobster again, with the obligatory stops at the Back Door Donuts, Giordanao's (near the Flying Horses) and the Seafood Shanty in Edgargtown. Yum yum and again! We gave Marsha a tour of Plymouth and Hyannis too, rounding out her New England tour. No stop here would be complete without a stop at Vel's Restaurant, a little spot we love in Wareham. You cannot go there without sampling the Lobster Bisque!
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| Kynlee and her neighbor Grady |
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| Lyla, Kynlee & Uncle |
Backtracking....we spent almost a month with our friend Pat in Lakeville, Mass. Les had a chance to do some repairs on her tractor, which I think he did more so for him to be able to ride it and mow her lawn than he did for her! LOL. He installed a handrail for her cellar stairs and some general yard work, which he does love. Meanwhile my friend Marsha flew in from Florida and Pat, Marsha and I went to Martha's Vineyard for a few days. We stayed near Edgartown and since we took the Jeep we spent a day (rainy overcast one) touring the Island and pretty much stopped in every major town on the Island. Of course we had lobster and lobster again, with the obligatory stops at the Back Door Donuts, Giordanao's (near the Flying Horses) and the Seafood Shanty in Edgargtown. Yum yum and again! We gave Marsha a tour of Plymouth and Hyannis too, rounding out her New England tour. No stop here would be complete without a stop at Vel's Restaurant, a little spot we love in Wareham. You cannot go there without sampling the Lobster Bisque!
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| Pat and Marsha at Gayhead MV |
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| Overlooking Menemsha on 40th Anniversary of Jaws! |
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| Pat and Marsha at Menemsha MV |
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| Sculpture on Menemsha Beach |
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| Plymouth Harbor with The Mayflower |
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| You only get one guess! Rock, 1620?? |
I ended up flying back to Florida with Marsha for a few days because my friend Tress recently lost her beloved Doug and I felt that I wanted to be with her to provide whatever support I could. Sometimes there are only actions and no words. Rest easy friend....
Back to Massachusetts for a few days and then off to New Hampshire, bringing us full circle to now!
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts finally!
June 2 - Lakeville Mass Arrival! - We left Ohio amidst rain and drove to Lake Erie PA in the mist, stayed overnight there and drove in the rain to Palmer, Mass. where we stayed for the night before heading to Pat's house in Lakeville. We did arrive here in late morning, unhooked, plugged in and the three of us headed for the Lobster Hut, the traditional first day stop in Massachusetts. It was as good as it always has been! For the last two days it has not been very warm, as a matter of fact this is the coldest it has been on this date since sometime in the late 1880's! Of course....hehe...
May 29 - Ohio Visit - Off we went to visit with Ruth and Jerry in Grove City Ohio. We stayed in Delaware Ohio and drove the Jeep down for a visit. We had a terrific visit...it's always a good time when we see them. They are both so kind and caring, and it's infectious as we leave feeling like we are better people that we came as. We ended up having fairly warm weather (something we had not had for quite some time!) before the rain came in. Funny story....we needed some type of adapter for the RV and we decided to go to Colerain RV in Delaware OH (small community). This was a satellite operation with their main showroom and service area in Cincinnati. As we were chatting with the salesperson we told her that our friends that we camp with love Colerain in Cincinnati....turns out she used to work there and knew them!!! Apparently we can go almost no where in the USA without someone knowing C&J (you know how you are!!!)....small world...
May 17 - May 26 - Spartan School!
Oh my gosh did we have a great time! We signed up for the Spartan Academy, Entegra Coach specific hoping that we would learn a few little nuggets from this class and also have an opportunity to meet other owners outside of the Factory. What we left with was a huge amount of knowledge regarding our Coach as well as a terrific service experience! What we will always keep with us is having the opportunity to meet so many great people of the same lifestyle as us! I am posting a "class photo" including the mascots but not including the Cats! They were very happy to stay inside the Coach during the day and skip the classroom time. If you weren't there you really cannot get a sense of the camaraderie as well as the golden opportunity to discuss your specific coach chassis, its' inner workings and diagnostic skills. We now know how much we did not know before! We had catered breakfasts and lunches, which were absolutely fantastic, as well as dinner on the long night! Les had the opportunity to have his own tech take him into the pit to view the underside of the coach, a chance that I passed on because I didn't have a clue what I was even looking at!
At the end of the week we all had a chance to attend a professional driving course with class time, range time and road time. All of us took advantage of the class and range time but only our brave Deb ventured onto the roadway. It was an excellent course and although Les is a very good driver, he even admitted to learning a few tricks to keep us safer.
We had an opportunity to purchase some parts (filters, belts, etc.) at a discounted price as well as have some warranty work done and other discounted work performed. We also jumped on the bandwagon and had Koni shocks put on the front of the coach and I will tell you this has made a world of difference in the ride...it is so smooth! Thank you to Nick who was so excited about his new Shocks we were convinced we needed them! I think almost all of us now have the new ones. Of course we had an alignment as well as adjustments in the tire pressures too but all of these combined with the new shocks makes it handle like a dream.
As a graduate of the Academy we were given a special gift! If you want to know what it was you will have to attend the class! All in all we had a fantastic experience.
We were sad to say so long to our Entegra friends and we all promised to keep in touch or hoped that we would see one another on the road. As everyone left one by one we stayed through the Memorial Day Weekend to have some service on our Micro/Convection oven and of course with the holiday could only wait for the first available tech on Tuesday. What the heck the camping was still free, courtesy of Spartan! It was our good fortune to have a new neighbor, Ron H. who had a Travel Supreme, the "father" of the Entegra family. We struck up a conversation and before you knew it we had another travel friend (he is residing in Colorado)....we always warn folks we meet that you never know when we will pull up to your place!
After it was determined that we needed a replacement Micro/Convection we headed to the Entegra Factory to pick a new one up and have it installed. Lo and behold when we took a stroll to the "owners" lot we happened upon Woody and Ann, one of new found Entegra friends from school! More great laughs!! Our friends Brian & Julie had left their coach here for repairs so the four of us had a photo taken in front of their coach! Here are a couple of photos from the class also.
May 29 - Ohio Visit - Off we went to visit with Ruth and Jerry in Grove City Ohio. We stayed in Delaware Ohio and drove the Jeep down for a visit. We had a terrific visit...it's always a good time when we see them. They are both so kind and caring, and it's infectious as we leave feeling like we are better people that we came as. We ended up having fairly warm weather (something we had not had for quite some time!) before the rain came in. Funny story....we needed some type of adapter for the RV and we decided to go to Colerain RV in Delaware OH (small community). This was a satellite operation with their main showroom and service area in Cincinnati. As we were chatting with the salesperson we told her that our friends that we camp with love Colerain in Cincinnati....turns out she used to work there and knew them!!! Apparently we can go almost no where in the USA without someone knowing C&J (you know how you are!!!)....small world...
May 17 - May 26 - Spartan School!
Oh my gosh did we have a great time! We signed up for the Spartan Academy, Entegra Coach specific hoping that we would learn a few little nuggets from this class and also have an opportunity to meet other owners outside of the Factory. What we left with was a huge amount of knowledge regarding our Coach as well as a terrific service experience! What we will always keep with us is having the opportunity to meet so many great people of the same lifestyle as us! I am posting a "class photo" including the mascots but not including the Cats! They were very happy to stay inside the Coach during the day and skip the classroom time. If you weren't there you really cannot get a sense of the camaraderie as well as the golden opportunity to discuss your specific coach chassis, its' inner workings and diagnostic skills. We now know how much we did not know before! We had catered breakfasts and lunches, which were absolutely fantastic, as well as dinner on the long night! Les had the opportunity to have his own tech take him into the pit to view the underside of the coach, a chance that I passed on because I didn't have a clue what I was even looking at!
At the end of the week we all had a chance to attend a professional driving course with class time, range time and road time. All of us took advantage of the class and range time but only our brave Deb ventured onto the roadway. It was an excellent course and although Les is a very good driver, he even admitted to learning a few tricks to keep us safer.
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| Elsa & Anna learn about air brakes |
As a graduate of the Academy we were given a special gift! If you want to know what it was you will have to attend the class! All in all we had a fantastic experience.
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| Nick, Les, Woody, Ken and Big Mike (Instructor) |
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| Ken, Deb (holding Belle), Ranger, Roger, Cheryl, Nick(in blue), Brian, Julie, Zoey, Big Mike, Nicole and Enoch (in back) from Spartan Les, Pat, Duff (Sue was with the two "kids") PJ from Entegra, Woody, Ann and Bailey |
After it was determined that we needed a replacement Micro/Convection we headed to the Entegra Factory to pick a new one up and have it installed. Lo and behold when we took a stroll to the "owners" lot we happened upon Woody and Ann, one of new found Entegra friends from school! More great laughs!! Our friends Brian & Julie had left their coach here for repairs so the four of us had a photo taken in front of their coach! Here are a couple of photos from the class also.
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| Woody, Bailey, Ann, Pat, Les in front of Brian & Julie's Coach |
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